The present invention relates generally to a trailer hitching apparatus and more particularly to a trailer hitching apparatus for automatically coupling a hitch ball to a trailer tongue. Recreational trailers are commonly used to pull boats and other heavy vehicle and towing items. A problem that commonly occurs is when a person is attempting to connect a hitch ball located on the rear frame of a vehicle and the person operating the vehicle is not able to clearly see the position of the trailer with respect to the trailer tongue. Therefore, as the person is attempting to connect the trailer with the hitch ball, the person often must go through a trial and error process for aligning the trailer to the hitch ball. The person often has to approximate the alignment of the trailer to the hitch ball and the distance between the trailer and the vehicle. Such a process requires the person to constantly leave the driving position in the vehicle to see if the hitch ball is in the correct position with respect to the trailer so that the trailer will connect with the hitch ball.
Previous designs have attempted to aid the sole person in hitching a trailer to a hitch ball attached to a vehicle. Such inventions include U.S. Pat. No. 4,903,978 issued to Schrum, which is a self-aligning trailer hitch that allows a towing vehicle hitch assembly to guide a trailer onto a hitch ball through using a series of brackets attached to the towing vehicle. The disadvantages to such a complex and elaborate assembly is that it is complicated for the user to attach to the vehicle and it is also difficult to properly use the apparatus with a conventional towing trailer.
Another device designed as a trailer hitch guide is described in U.S. Pat. No. 3,773,356 issued to Eichels, et al. The trailer hitch guide is used to guide the trailer to a position over the ball so that the trailer hitch will fall into place on the hitch ball when lowered down. This invention implements a V-shaped guide member to position the trailer above the hitch ball, so that when lowered, the trailer will be over the hitch ball. The base plate must be moved forward or backward to correct the position of the device relative to the ball. Thus, the V-shaped guide member does guide the trailer to be positioned above the ball. However, such an invention does not automatically couple the hitch ball with the trailer socket, which still causes the user to estimate when the trailer is over the hitch ball when hitching a trailer alone.
What is needed then is an apparatus for engaging a hitch ball to a trailer socket without requiring the user to constantly leave the user's vehicle to analyze the position of the trailer with respect to the hitch ball.